Comments 0

Document transcript

increase production and productivityof smallholder farmers in Ethiopia

1

Promoting ICT based agricultural knowledge management to increaseproduction and productivity of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia

2

Abstract

The Agricultural sector has the greatest potential for improving rural livelihood and eradicatingthe Growth and TransformationPlan (GTP). By the end of the GTP period, the government seeks to double yields of smallholderfarmers largely by scaling-up best practices, producing high value crops, expanding irrigationdevelopment and promoting natural resource conservation. A substantial increase in agricultural yieldand output isexpected to be realized by implementing interventions aimed at speeding-up theassimilation and adoption of improved agricultural technology and management practices of thef these strategieson productivity and production are analyzed to determine their adequacy in meeting the GTPproduction targets. The analysis shows that while production and productivity targets are generallyachievable, the country needs to adopt more cost-effective, innovative and modern approaches toagricultural knowledge management and reform and modernize its agricultural extension system.These new approaches, concepts and tools for effective knowledge management in the agriculturalsector are presented. Case studies on how these approaches have been designed and implemented inselected countries in Africa and Asia to increase production and productivity of smallholder farmersarepresented. Ethiopia can draw on these experiences to develop and utilize ICT-based knowledgemanagement techniques to implement robust strategies and intervention to transform its agriculturalsector and double production and productivity of smallholder farmers as envisaged in the GTP.

**UNDP is the United Nations' global development network, an organization advocating for changeand connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.UNDP is on the ground in 177 countries, and partners with people at all levels of society to offerglobal perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations.

3

1.

Introduction

Knowledge management can play a pivotal role in enhancing agricultural productivity and addressingthe problem of food insecurity. Ifproperly managed, it enables appropriate knowledge andinformation to reach knowledge intermediaries and smallholder farmers in a timely manner. Suchdelivery of knowledge and information undoubtedly minimizes the risk and uncertainty smallholderfarmers face from production to marketing of their produce. But, to effectively engage in agriculturalknowledge management, adequate mechanisms are needed for generating, capturing, anddisseminating knowledge and information through the use of effective processes

and institutionalarrangements.

Sources of agricultural knowledge include scientific research and indigenous knowledge. After thecreation, sourcing or accumulation of knowledge, the knowledge has to be disseminated to users tosupport the innovation process. Information and communication technology (ICT) can play a criticalrole in facilitating rapid, efficient, and cost effective knowledge management. However, ICTapplication in Ethiopia remains low in comparison with several African countries. For instance, in anumber of Sub-Saharan African countries, smallholder farmers get technology-related advice as wellas location-specific market information on inputs and outputs through ICT kiosks. Furthermore,mobile telephone service is being used to deliveragricultural information to users.

To speed up technology adoption, the government of Ethiopia needs to quickly review andmodernize its public extension service delivery system and particularly the agricultural extensionsystem and provide an enabling framework for utilizing advances in information and communicationtechnology to deliver agricultural extension services. Using available ICTs will not only improveinformation and knowledge management for extension workers and farmers but optimize andrationalize public resources devoted to agricultural extension services. Illustrative case studies on howmodern ICT systems have been utilized to deliver effective public extension service in the agriculturalsector will be reviewed and recommendations codified

for policy consideration.

-term vision and strategy for doubling agricultureproduction and identifies innovative approaches that the country can utilize to design and implementcost-effective interventions in the smallholder segment of the agricultural sector. The analysis beginswith a review of agricultural productivity in Ethiopia from a comparative perspective and examines

4

the potential improvements that can be realized by improving technology adoption

and use bysmallholder farmers. This assessment provides a basis for analyzing strategies for attainingsecurity goals.

Streamlining public extension service has been identified as one of the critical interventions that willagricultural extension system will be critical in identifying gaps and areas where strategicimprovements needs to be made to enable improved information management to contribute toraising agriculture productivity and ensuring food security in the country. Such strategies will focus,among others, on innovative approaches for embracing modern ICT-based agricultural extension tospeed up agricultural technology and market information dissemination to farmers and otherstakeholders in the agricultural sector.

2.

Background and policy framework

Agriculture is the mainstay of the Ethiopian economy and underpins its development process. It is asector with great potential for stimulating growth and employment and eradicating poverty. Becauseof its importance to national food security and poverty reduction, the government has, within theGrowth

and Transformation Plan (GTP), articulated a clear vision for the sector, placing it at the centeraim to stimulate investment and productivity of the sector to promote household and national foodsecurity and to rally development partners to deliver effective development aid to the sector.production andproductivity by among others promoting domestic and foreign investment throughagricultural commercialization, increasing public investment in agricultural infrastructure, promotingtechnology transfer and adoption, ensuring efficient use of land, labor, technology and other inputs,and specifically raising the productivity of smallholder farmers (GTP, 2010).

During the GTP period, government aims to double the production of smallholder farmers byimplementing measures to raise and sustain high agricultural productivity. The scope to increaseproduction through area expansion is continuously diminishing as land for agriculture gets exhausted,

5

making this approach less sustainable in the long term. There are about 12.6 million smallholderfarmers with an average farm size of only 1.2 hectares whose production accounts for 85 percent of2012). In addition to the fact that agricultural productivity among

smallholder farmers is as low as 1.25tonnes per hectare for teff, there is also great variability in productivity across farmers with the mostproductive farmer producing 3.66 tonnes per hectare compared to the average yield of 1.83 perhectare for cereals (Access capital, 2012).

This shows that there is great potential to increase production by raising yields per hectare for allsmallholder farmers to that of the most productive (model) farmer. Significant productivity differencesalso exist across agro-ecological zones. These differences provide additional prospects for increasingproduction and productivity by providing incentives that induce farmers to optimally exploit regionalspecific advantages to enhance returns from agricultural investment.1

Doing so will not only increaseagricultural production through specialization and commercialization of agricultural production butwill help to raise agricultural household income and employment, and ultimately contribute topoverty reduction in the rural sector.

In view of these opportunities, the Ethiopian government aims to double agricultural production andfood production in particular by implementing key initiatives in the following three strategic areasthat will involve:

a)

Scaling up best-practices: Under this pillar, government recognizes that the productivity of atypical smallholder farmer is two to three times lower than that of the most productive farmerin this segment. Interventions to move less productive farmers to the production frontier ofmedium term. Among others, technology development and diffusion, and adoption of soundfarm management practices by small holder farmers have been identified asbeing strategic tothe realization of this objective. In the immediate term, government should focus on

1

For example, Afar region produces 40 quintiles of maize per ha, while the second highest Oromia produces 25quintile per hectares and lower Dire Dawa and Somalia only 15 quintiles per hectare. Bridging these gaps wouldalmost double maize production.

Expanding land under irrigation: Irrigation development and natural resources conservation,with great focus on irrigation and surface and underground water development, utilizationand management to support agricultural activities especially in arid or drought prone areas;and

c)

Promoting cultivation of high value crops: Gradually and according to regional specificcomparative advantage move farmers from producing low value to high value crops in orderto enhance their productivity and income from agriculture. This precisely entails changing themindset of smallholder farmers so that they can look at farming as business and not simply asa way of life.

These three strategic directions are underpinned by interventions aimed at enhancing agriculturalextension systems and adoption and efficient use of existing technologies to raise productivity onsmall holder farms. Development, testing, and diffusion of new technologies are emphasized in orderto ensure continuous innovation and growth of the sector as well as to promote resilience andadaptation to changing agro-ecological environment. The problem of low productivity on smallholderfarms is not much the lack of agricultural technologies but rather of inadequate knowledge, skills andresources (inputs such as fertilizer, labor, equipment, seeds and water) to enable them adopt andefficiently utilize existing technologies to enhance production and earning from farming. Whilegovernment has identified low productivity as one of the major hindrances to raising agricultureproductivity and food security, it should also focus policy towards speeding up the rate of technologyadoption and dissemination of market information to support decision-making at the farm-level andindeed along the agricultural value chain.

Agricultural production and food security in Ethiopia

The agricultural sector accounts for 41.6 percent of GDP (Birr 474.5 billion in 2011) and employs 85earnings currently valued at US$2.7 billion. While real

agricultural GDP has steadily increased from Birr31.1 billion (US$3.73 billion) in 1999/00 to Birr 64.7 billion (US$ 3.65billion) in 2010/11, its contributionto GDP has fallen by 10 percentage points to 41 percent of GDP between 1999/00 and 2010/11. In

7

terms of food production, the country produced 22.5 million tonnes of crop, of which 95 percent isfrom small holder farms and the remainder from commercial farms. As a major source of calories,cereal production is critical to both household and nationalfood security in Ethiopia. In 2010/11, over96 percent of cereals were produced by smallholder farmers and 65 percent of this production wasconsumed within the farm-household and only 16 percent was sold for cash or bartered. Taking theaverage per-capita

calorie requirement of 2.16 quintiles for 2,100 daily calories, the country needs toproduce 18.4 million tonnes of cereals to feed its population of about 85 million people. Since 16percent of the cereals are produced as seed, 15.5 million tonnes of the

production is consumablewithin the farm household. This implies a deficit in cereal production of approximately three milliontonnes in 2010/11. This deficit is expected to be much higher when cereal production is converted towheat calorie equivalence,which is the standard calorie measure. Using these estimates, the numberof people that were food insecure in 2010/11 is estimated at 13.3 million people.2

This number is likelyto increase when crops fail due to either adverse weather conditions or conflicts.

Ethiopia is dependent on food imports and food aid especially in times of high food deficits. In2010/11, about 10,000 metric tonnes of grains, which

accounts for 74 percent of total food imports,were imported into the country and an additional 755,540 tonnes of cereals was received as food aidin 2010. Food aid amounted to 1.25 million tonnes in 2003 when the country had a drought which ledto crop failure and high food deficits.3

prone tofrequent droughts estimated at 3.5 to 5 million people. This means that the PSNP, which is probablythe largest social security program in Africa covers approximately 13.3 million people categorized asfood insecure. The need to ensure national food security puts food production at the center of the

Trends in agriculture and crop productivity

Ethiopia has ample scope to substantially increase agricultural production and achieve household andnational food security by increasing the productivity of smallholder farmers. This can be achieved bypromoting technology transfer and adoption, boosting commercial production, deepeningagricultural markets, and improving infrastructure and agricultural policies. Some progress in risingproductivity has been made in the last decade, but these changes are far from being transformative.While agricultural yields per hectare is 1.7 tonnes of cereals and just above the Sub-Saharan Africaaverage of 1.5 tonnes, agricultural production systems are largely agrarian and subsistence with over65 percent of the production consumed within the farm household. Agricultural systems shouldrapidly be transformed in order to double productivity levels to reach 3.5

tonnes per hectare recordedin Asia (figure 2).

3

Food aid receipt are quite high, averaging 610,000 metric tonnes annually since 2000, and the food import billrose to US$1004 million in 2010 from an annual average of US$366 between 2002 and 2007.

9

Figure 2. Comparison of yield per hectare for cereals in selected countries in 2010

In addition to implementing measures to double physical quantities of

the agricultural produce byincreasing agricultural productivity, government should equally be concerned about maximizing thenutritional value of the output as well as marginal value of land devoted to agriculture and other landcompeting uses. Figure 3shows trends in the value of crop and total agricultural output per hectarebetween 2004/5 and 2010/11. The data shows that value of output per hectare, which has beenincreasing since 2004/5, declined significantly in 2010/11 largely due to the sharp increase in inflation.While the nominal value of agricultural and crop output increased by approximately 43 percent and50 percent over the six-year period since 2004/5, the corresponding increase in real terms was only 8.2percent and 7.3 percent respectively. The value of crop output per hectare which had been rising at7.3 percent annually between 2004/5 and 2009/10 posted a sharp decline of 13 percent in 2010/11.The fall in the value of output per hectare was even more pronounced for the whole agriculture

sector, which posted a decline of 21 percent in 2010/11 when headline inflation and food inflationrose to 38 and 45 percent respectively and the local currency was devalued by 20 percent.

5.5

5.2

4.2

3.6

3.5

2.5

1.7

1.6

1.6

1.5

1.4

1.3

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

china

vietnam

south america

Asia

World Average

India

Ethiopia

Uganda

Kenya

SSA average

Nigeria

Tanzania

Adopted

from Access Capital, (2012).

10

Figure 3.

Real value of crop and agricultural output per hectare (2004/52010/11)

Source: CSA (various issues)

It is important that the government does not solely focus on increasing the physical output perhectare but also ensures that the value of output produced is maximized in real terms. This will help toenhance efficiency in agricultural land use and land allocation across the different land uses in theeconomy. To achieve this,

the government needs to maintain macroeconomic stability and gravitatetowards

a competitive exchange rate. Slippages in macroeconomic stability, which have adverselyimpacted agriculture production and income should be addressed and where possible avoided infuture in order to create and sustain a vibrant and internationally competitive agricultural sector.Providing incentives to farmers to shift from production of low value crops to high value crops canhelp to increase yields and returns on land devoted to small holder agriculture in the country.Measures to increase the nutritional value of food crops will help to enhance food security at thehousehold level.

-

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

2004/5

2005/6

2006/7

2007/8

2008/9

2009/10

2010/11e

real crop GDP/ha

real Agric GDP/ha

11

Increasing agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers

In order to double output, government can pursue at least three strategies: first, it can raiseagricultural

yield per hectare from 1.7 tonnes to 3.5 tonneswhich is the average for Asia, bybenchmarking on agricultural technologies in Asian countries. While rapid agriculturalcommercialization can help to raise total factor productivity, it should not leave smallholder farmerswho currently produce over 95 percent of the food crop behind the technology frontier. In thiscontext, a more sustainable transformation of the agricultural sector should ultimately involvemeasures to boost production and productivity of

small holder farmers on the one hand and targetedinterventions to support agricultural commercialization on the other. Since productivity is widelydispersed across small holders, closing these disparities by raising productivity of marginal farmers tothat of the most productive farmers in this segment would enable the country to double productionand achieve the target envisioned in the GTP. This can be achieved by also inculcating the spirit ofentrepreneurship in small holder farmers so that they cantake up farming as business ventures.

Lastly, much of the increase in agricultural output in the last decade was achieved by expanding landunder crop cultivation. The increase in real agricultural output and crop production of 43 percent and33 percentrespectively has been attributed to the increases in land under cultivation, which invariablygrew by 30 percent compared to less than 20 percent growth in productivity over the same period.This strategy of raising food production is not sustainable in the long term as the scope for furthergrowth in output will soon reach a natural limit as land available for agricultural expansion getsexhausted. Therefore, merely expanding land under crop cultivation will not guarantee national foodself-sufficiency in

the long-term. In the coming years, the contribution of productivity growth tooutput should be farther enhanced in order to increase food production and achieve food security. Asindicated in the GTP, land under crop cultivation among smallholder farmers

will only be increased by8.1 percent, and land under irrigation will be more than double to reach 1,850,000 ha by the end ofthe GTP period from 850,000 ha in 2009. This will bring about 20 percent of the land cultivated bysmallholder farmers under irrigation, and yields are expected to increase as production will notdepend solely on rainfall.

12

Table 1 shows differences in productivity between smallholder and commercial farmers in 2010/11and projections of the potential output that can be produced by pushing smallholder farmers towardsthe production frontier of commercial farmers for all crops,

except for rice where yields on smallholderfarms are reported to be higher than that on commercial farms. Column two and three show theamount of land under crop cultivation and corresponding output produced by crop. Columns fourand five show productivity by crop for smallholder farmers as well as commercial framers, whilecolumn six shows productivity difference between smallholder farmers and commercial farmers.

Crop productivity on smallholder farms is on average 1.83 tonnes per hectare for cereals,

which is 83percent lower than yields on commercial farms (3.36 tonnes/ha for cereals). Clearly, the greatestdifferences

in productivity are in maize, wheat and barley. This means that raising the productivity ofsmallholder farmers in these three cropswill have the greatest impact on overall grain production inthe country. Productivity differences in teff and sorghum is only 15 percent, suggesting that raisingproductivity on both smallholder and commercial farmers is required in order to double yields

andenhance national and household food security.

Table 1. Cereal productivity among small and commercial farmers in 2010/11

Crops

ha

tonnes

smallholders

commercial

productivitydiff.

close gapby 50%

close

thegap 100%

teff

2,764,669

3,483,483

1.26

1.45

15.1%

3,691,930

4,008,770

barley

1,044,998

1,703,347

1.63

2.48

52.1%

1,975,816

2,591,595

wheat

1,552,001

2,855,682

1.84

3.3

79.3%

3,471,422

5,121,604

maize

1,963,041

4,986,125

2.54

4.81

89.4%

5,863,311

9,442,229

sorghum

1,894,688

3,959,897

2.09

2.41

15.3%

4,104,945

4,566,197

finger

406,940

634,826

1.56

1.64

5.1%

645,260

667,381

oats

30,886

47,565

1.54

1.54

0.0%

47,565

47,565

rice

29,839

90,412

3.03

2.33

-23.1%

108,494

108,494

cereals

9,687,062

17,761,337

1.83

3.36

83.6%

19,908,743

26,553,836

Source: Own computations based on statistics from CSA (2011) and Access Capital (2012).

13

Raising crop productivity on smallholder farms to that of commercial farms will only increase outputby 50 percent to 26.6 million tonnes from 17.8 milliontonnes in 2010/11, with 87 percent of theincrease in output resulting from productivity enhancement in maize, wheat and barley. Attainingnational food security will also require increasing productivity and output of the stable crop, teff inthis case. For teff production, new technologies in the area of seed and improvements in reducingpost-harvest losses which are currently as high as 30 percent will help to increase output. When weadd 8.1 percent expansion in land under smallholder crop production, total crop output increases to28.7 million tonnes, which is about 62 percent of the GTP target. This target is achievable in five yearsas long as technology and farm management practices of commercial farmers can be diffused,assimilated and employed by smallholder farmers to raise productivity.

The second approach envisioned in the GTP is to reduce disparities in output and productivity amongsmallholder farmers by pushing laggards towards the frontier of the best-model farmer in each cropest of the group is the strategy thegovernment intends to pursue during the GTP implementation period. This will be complimented byexpansion in irrigation facilities to increase land under irrigation in this segment by 117 percent to1,850,000 ha by theend of the GTP period. This will increase land under irrigation from the current 9percent to 20 percent of the total land cultivated. This combined with 8.1percent expansion in landunder crop cultivation is expected to double productivity from 1.83 tonnes per ha to about 3.6 tonnesper hectare. It is expected that this will enable smallholder farmers to produce 35.5 million tonnes ofcereals per annum by the end of the GTP period and achieve the objective of doubling the 17.8 milliontonnes recorded in the 2010 baseline period.

Finally, increasing agricultural productivity from the current 1.7 tonnes to 3.5 tonnes and join theranks of Asian countries in term of yields per hectare calls for major transformation of the agriculturalsector. Private investment in commercial agriculture will need to be promoted over the period and FDIwill certainly have to play a key role in this transformation. This will be enhanced by implementingstrategies aimed at changing the mindset of smallholder farmers so that theycan undertake farmingas a business and not merely as a source of traditional livelihoods so that they can gradually transitiontowards small-scale but efficient commercial farming. These strategies matched by strongcommitment by government to promote technology diffusion, adoption and effective utilization isrequired to translate these bold ambitions into reality and ultimately stir the agricultural sector on a

14

sustainable and transformative path. It is true that additional research and knowledge is needed,especially in the present era of climate change to enable farmers to adapt and also mitigate climatechange impacts.

Agricultural technical-knowhow and market information to some extent is available to supportdecision-making at the farm-level andalong the value chain. The major challenge lies in transmittingthis knowledge and information to farmers in a manner that they are able to assimilate the technologyand use it to improve yields and livelihoods. To gain in depth insight on this challenge,agricultural extension systems is reviewed and major challenges and innovative solutions forstreamlining knowledge and information management to increase agricultural productivity andoutput of smallholder farmers are discussed and recommendations highlighted for policyconsideration.

Knowledge Management in the agricultural sector in Ethiopia

6.1 An overview of agricultural extension

In Ethiopia, public agricultural extension services have been in action for about half a century. Studies

show that Ethiopia has the largest agricultural extension system in Sub-Saharan Africa, and thirdlargest in the world after China and India (Swanson and Rajalahti, 2010). According to the Bill andMelinda Gates Foundation (BMGF 2010), a total of 8,500 farmer training centers (FTCs) have beenestablished and 63,000 field extension workers (known as development agents-DAs) have beentrained. The current extension approach, therefore, follows FTC-based extension system. The FTCs arepositioned to facilitateagricultural knowledge and information exchange among researchers,extension workers and farmers. Woreda level agricultural offices are responsible for managing theoperation of FTCs with the support of zonal and regional agriculture bureaus and are the frontlineadministrative structure for implementing agricultural extension services in the country. The experts(called subject matter specialists-SMS) in each woreda provide technical support and training to DAs.Most of the FTCs have at least three development agentsone for crops, livestock, and naturalresource management. These development agents hold at least a diploma in agricultural (natural

15

Despite the potential role that FTCs and DAs can play in knowledge and information dissemination, anumber of factors pose limits to the proper implementation and success of the program. In thisregard, inadequate infrastructure and localized technical information, as well as

budgetary shortfallsare some of the major constraints that inhibit effective agricultural knowledge management anddelivery of agricultural extension services in Ethiopia (Davis et al, 2010 and BMFG, 2010). Most FTCshave no access to electricity and donot have electronic equipments such as TVs and computers thatthey need to effectively discharge their work. In addition, only very few FTCs have advanced teachingequipment such as computers and access to the internet. Even when access and equipment areavailable to development agents, there is need to train and upgrade their skills. This upgrade isnecessary because most of the development agents and extensions workers have limited ICT skills tooptimally utilize them in their daily agricultural extension

work with smallholder farmers.

Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and regional agricultural research centers deliveragricultural research activities to farmers mostly through SMS, development agents and FTCs. EIARalso oversees the work of federal research centers and coordinates all agricultural research activities inthe country. On the other hand, Regional Agricultural Research Centers (RARCs) are run by therespective regional governments within their regional bureaus of agriculture. Both EIAR and theRARCs have research-extension coordination departments, which tries to link research activities toagricultural extension. These linkages are currently weak and need to be improved in order to usethem as a vehicle for generating, transmitting and updating agricultural knowledge and practices ofsmallholder farmers (Davis 2010). This is important in making agricultural research and extensionsservices play a key role in raising output and productivity of smallholder farmers and therebycontribute to doubling of production and productivity of smallholder farmers by the end of the GTPperiod in 2015.

6.2 Knowledge management: concepts, processes and tools

Knowledge management can be defined as the fact or condition of knowing something with aconsiderable degree of familiarity acquired through experience, association or contact. Knowledgeconsists of the attitudes, cumulative experiences, and developed skills that enable a person toconsistently, systematically and effectively perform a function (William and Michael, 2005). It is anintegration of explicit and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge refers to all aspects of formal,systematic, recorded, communicated and shared knowledge that is made accessible through a variety

16

of information delivery systems. Tacit knowledge on the other hand is highly personal, created bydoing, trial, error, reflection and revision.

Knowledge management encompasses processes and practices concerned with the creation,acquisition, sharing and use of knowledge, skills and expertise and follow a circular flow and anonstop process that continuously updates itself (see figure 4).

Knowledge management deals with the process of capturing, sharing and using of knowledge andtechniques .For the circular flow of knowledge management to take place both knowledge, that issufficiently better than the existing knowledge, and means for transmitting it must be both available.In addition, the consumers of knowledge must be willing and able to use the better knowledge that isnow available.

Knowledge is considered as the fourth production factor after labor, land and capital (AFAAS, 2011)and is particularly critical in the agricultural sector. Making relevant knowledge accessible to thefarming community helps improve production, productivity and brings higher returns. If theagricultural practice of smallholders is not backed up by modern agricultural knowledge andinformation, agricultural households are likely to remain trapped in low productivity, food insecurity

17

and poverty. In the context of Ethiopia, generating new agricultural knowledge and information andmaking it available for useby smallholder farmers is important in promoting sustainable livelihoodsand reducing rural poverty.

Various entities are engaged in the creation and development of information and knowledge.Likewise, several repositories and intermediaries play theirrole to bring the information andknowledge to the ultimate users. Agricultural knowledge is created from modern and indigenoussources. The modern knowledge is created through scientific research (and therefore it is explicitknowledge) by universities and research institutes. Indigenous knowledge or tacit knowledge, on theother hand, refers to traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of local communities and isdeveloped outside the formal education system.

Agricultural information and knowledge

created from these sources is stored in various forms before itis disseminated for use. The main repositories of such knowledge include publications, audio visuals,and websites. The stored knowledge and information is then disseminated to users, such as

ruralfarmers, through intermediaries notably during trainings, field visits, exhibitions, publications, andusing traditional forms of ICT (TV and radio), modern forms of ICT (internet, mobile phone, etc), andothers. Figure 5 shows the flow of agricultural knowledge and information from creation to end use.

Figure 5. Tools of knowledge and information management in agriculture

Effective knowledge management is achieved when the right knowledge and information is deliveredto

the right person at the right time in a user friendly and accessible manner that helps the recipientsto perform their jobs efficiently (Islam 2010). The outcome of effective knowledge managementincludes improved productivity and performance of the agricultural sector.

The attainment of effective knowledge management in the agriculture sector requires the systematicand continuous interaction of stakeholders that include farmers, farmer organizations, researchscientists, policy makers, extension agentsand the private sector among others (ASARECA, 2010).Therefore, to be effective, knowledge management in agriculture must embrace the following fourexploit its potentials (ii) identifying how the problem can be solved or opportunities can be exploited(iii) the source of knowledge required for success; and (iv) determination of who would be responsiblefor taking the actions needed to solve the problem or exploit the identified opportunities.

In Africa, this process of ensuring the effectiveness of knowledge management in agriculture is bestedby a range of constraints such as inadequate mechanisms for capturing, systematizing and sharingavailable knowledge; inadequate analysis of agricultural

sector communication stakeholders, theirknowledge needs, attitudes and practices to knowledge management; use of less effective media and

19

channels for communicating with different stakeholders; and weak monitoring and evaluation ofknowledge management systems (ASARECA, 2010). In order to obtain satisfactory results out ofknowledge and information management, farmers need to be engaged in the whole knowledgemanagement process. This is crucial because it will enable better integration of tacit and explicitknowledge. The knowledge and information created out of this process is also more likely to beaccepted by the farmers as it would have incorporated knowledge and practices developed andpassed on to them through generations. Farmers can also improve and enrich their existingindigenous (tacit) knowledge not only through the interaction with modern knowledge, but also bysharing experience with other farmers. However, in order to scale up knowledge to other farmers, theknowledge and information needs to

be codified, made explicit, and upgraded or modernized withresearch-based evidence.

Smallholder farmers in Ethiopia as well as elsewhere in the developing world require

up to dateknowledge and information in order to effectively and efficiently perform their farming practices. Theknowledge and information that farmers demand ranges from accessibility of new farming methods,availability of weather forecast and supply as well as price of inputs and outputs, among others. InEthiopia, various institutions and organizations are engaged in the creation, collection, storing, anddissemination of agricultural knowledge and information. The most notable ones, in terms of havingdirect linkage with the farmers, are institutes of agricultural research and the Ministry of Agriculture.

Agricultural research institutes are the prime source for the creation of agricultural knowledge andinformation in the country.

The creation of information and knowledge management by these institutes begins withidentification of information and knowledge needs or gaps, and the capturing, storage, andsharing/dissemination of the knowledge to the users. Identification of the demand for knowledge andinformation is conducted through a participatory approach with the involvement of stakeholders,namely: farmers, researchers, extension experts, among others. The major sources for capturingknowledge and information are publications, conferences, events (field day, exhibitions, visits, etc),and research reports, and germplasm management (see figure 6). Whatever is obtained in this way isstored in various forms, including in publications, audio visuals, library services, and websites amongothers. The knowledge and information is then disseminated to researchers, extension experts,farmers, and the public at largethrough publications, mass media (radio and television), internet, fieldday, exhibitions, and interviews. In practice, however, field days, radio, and TV programs were themajor tools usually used to share the knowledge and information to the smallholder farmers whileinternet and other modern ICT tools were seldom found to be used.

21

ICT for the Dissemination of Agricultural Knowledge and Information

ICT can play a crucial role in benefiting the resource-strapped farmers with up to date knowledge andinformation on agricultural technologies, best practices, markets, price trends, andweatherconditions. The experiences of most countries indicate that rapid development of ICT, which facilitatesthe flow of data and information, has tremendously enhanced the knowledge management practicein agriculture.

However, in Ethiopia the use of ICT for the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge andinformation is still low. Currently, among the various ICT related initiatives, radio is widely used toshare and inform users on agricultural issues, including new and upgraded farming techniques,

production management, market information, and other issues. Due to its strategic importance inreaching the majority of the smallholders, attempts are being made to strengthen the delivery ofknowledge and information through radio programs.

The initiative of Farm Radio International (FRI) is one best case in the use of ICT for agriculture. FRI, aCanadian based not-for-profit organization, started its operation in Ethiopia in June 2011. It operatesin direct partnership with some local radio broadcasters where it supports them to build the necessaryskills to develop content that responds to the needs of local small-scale farmers. In order to providethe radio broadcasters with news and resources that help meet the needs of small-scale farmers, FRIproduces a weekly publication called Farm Radio Weekly that is delivered to e-mail inboxes everyweek with free subscription. FRI also prepares and collects agriculture related knowledge andinformation and produce radio script that is used by the partner broadcasters.

Apart from such traditional ICT tools (i.e., radio and TV), the use of modern ICT (computer, internet,mobile telephony, etc) remains very low in the country. However, some activities that make use of ICTtools in agricultural knowledge and information management are underway and are worthmentioning.

22

A project on Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS)

of Ethiopian Farmers wasimplemented4

with the objective of assisting the Ministry of Agriculture to develop a knowledgemanagement system. This IPMS project has developed web-based portal and also establishedknowledge centers. The Ethiopian Agriculture Portal aggregates information from diverse nationaland international sources. It contains technology, market related as well as extension packages for awide range of crops, forest products, and livestock. In addition, it deploys agricultural research outputsdrawn from national and international research institutes, and higher education institutions. Inresponse to the unavailability orpoor internet network in many rural areas, the project has alsodeveloped an offline version of the portal that provides access to most of the features of the onlineversion.

In addition, woreda knowledge centers are established in each of the pilot learning woredas, where itoperates. Each center is equipped with computers, a printer, a TV set, DVD player, and telephone lineand access to internet connection among others. These centers provide the respective woredaextension personnel easier access to agricultural information and thus empower them to be betterprepared to discharge their duties. At present the IPMS project only operates in the ten pilot learningworedas. Any attempt to scale up the activity to other woredas and FTCs has been hampered bylackof electricity, internet connection, computer skills, and budget among others.

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) is yet another notable organization that has embarked onsome modern types of ICT-based information management system. It carries out trading of theagricultural commodities on its trading floor located in Addis Ababa and disseminates priceinformation in real time to producers, consumers, and traders using electronic price tickers as well asits website. At present, there are 30 price

tickers installed in towns across the country and it isprojected to reach 150 by the end of 2012. The price tickers are also used to transmit any change ofprice information directly in real time to the users. In addition, ECX has developed a prototype for datadissemination using short message services (SMS) and interactive voice response (IVR). There arecurrently about 200 thousand users of the SMS service, and about 50 thousand IVR users per day ofwhich, the majority (65 percent), are from outside Addis Ababa.

4

It is a project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency and implemented by InternationalLivestock Research Institute on behalfof the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture

23

Although progress is being made in using ICT to provide a wide range of knowledge and informationcomparatively low. Innovative approaches such

as ICT kiosks that serve as centers for providing arange of knowledge and information are not yet widely available in the country. In rural parts ofEthiopia, where access to information on individual basis may be costly and also unavailable, sucharrangements are believed to have the potential to bring the required information to the ruralcommunity in the most cost effective way.

Box 1. ICT and agricultural commodity exchange in Kenya

The Kenyan Agricultural Commodity Exchange (KACE) collects, updates, analyses and providesreliable and timely marketing information and intelligence on a wide range of crop and livestockcommodities, targeting actors in commodity value chains, with particular attention to smallholderfarmers and small scale agribusinesses (KACE, 2011). The KACE marketing information and linkagesystem (MILS) involves harnessing the power and advantages of modern ICT for informationcollection, processing and delivery. Thecomponents of the KACE MILS are: Market ResourceCenters (MRCs), Mobile Phone SMS, IVRS, Internet Database System (IDS), National Radio, Rural FMRadio and the KACE Headquarters Central Hub (KCH) in Nairobi.

MRCs are information kiosks located in rural markets and serve as sources of KACE marketinformation for farmers and agribusinesses, as well as providing market linkage through matchingcommodity offers and bids. SMS service applies mobile telephone for market information deliveryto users. The market

information currently available through SMS includes daily wholesale buyingprices for about 20 commodities, as well as offers to sell and bids to buy. IVRS uses voice mail fordelivery of market price information. In this platform, a user dials a special

phone number toaccess the information through simple menu steps, with a choice of language between the localKiswahili and English. IDS is a system where updated market information is sent daily tosubscribers in the database as email messages. The KCH in Nairobi receives processes, manages,updates, disseminates and coordinates market information services through the MILS, using thechannels described above (KACE, 2011).

24

In countries like Ethiopia where social networks are important factors in disseminating knowledge andinformation within the rural community, ICT kiosks can play a facilitating role and can also be used as aplace where farmers can buy various goods and services. In India, this has been applied effectivelywith the involvement of the private sector (see Box 2).

Box 2. ICT kiosks: success story in India

eChoupal is an initiative of ITC Limited (a large multi business conglomerate in India) to linkdirectly with rural farmers for procurement of agricultural produce like soybeans, wheat,

coffee,and prawns. eChoupal was conceived to tackle the challenges of Indian agriculture, characterizedby fragmented farms, weak infrastructure, and the involvement of numerous intermediaries.

The company has already established over 10,000 eChoupal kiosks (centers), across severalagricultural regions of the country each with a computer and Internet access where the farmers candirectly negotiate the sale of their produce online with ITC Limited. These eChoupal centers alsoenable farmers to obtain online information and recommendations on good farming practices. Inaddition, they can place orders for agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizers. This helps farmers toimprove the quality of their produce and realize better prices. Each ITC Limited kiosk is run by avillages, generally within about a 5 km radius. These farmers bear some operating cost but, inreturn, earn a service fee for each e-transaction done

through their eChoupal.

The foregoing discussion points out that in Ethiopia various institutions and organizations areengaged in the creation, accumulation, and dissemination of agricultural knowledge. Nevertheless,the use of ICT in knowledge and information management is so far not only low but also dominatedby traditional ICT tools-

radio and TV. The use of modern ICT (internet, mobile phones, etc) in storingand disseminating knowledge and information remains very low, despite their huge potential. In thisknowledge and information age, it is important to address the challenges that limit the use of suchtools and identify the opportunities that should be tapped to assist Ethiopian smallholder farmers intheir endeavor to improve production and contribute to national food security.

25

The challenges and opportunities for using ICT for dissemination ofagricultural knowledge and information in Ethiopia

The role of ICT in enhancing food security and supporting rural livelihoods is increasingly beingrecognized and was officially endorsed at the World Summit on the Information Society (2003-2005).Several countries in Africa and Asia are now using ICT for the dissemination of agricultural knowledgeand information and a number of success stories have been registered that can bereplicated andscaled up in Ethiopia. A few of the ICT-based interventions are provided below to illustrate the extentof the progress that has been made in the agricultural sector in selected countries (see box 3 below).

Box 3. Selected success stories5

In Philippines the Nutrient Manager for Rice Mobile program provides rice farmers with advice via theirmobile phone on the optimal timing, amount, and type of fertilizer to apply to their rice crop tomaximize production and profit, and reduce waste. Thefarmers and extension workers are able to dial atoll-free number and hear a voice instruction in their preferred local language, which will prompt themto use their keypad to answer 12 to 15 questions about their rice crop.

In Ghana, Esoko, a local company, implemented Cocoalink, a pilot program that provides cocoa farmerswith useful information about improving farming practices, farm safety, crop disease prevention, post-harvest production, and crop marketing. In this program farmers receive information and specificanswers to questions at no charge through voice and SMS messages in their local language or English.

In India, Reuters Market Light (RML) sends four SMS messages a day to its subscribers. Farmers whosubscribe to the system receive information about the weather, crops, current and projectedcommodity prices at different markets.

In Kenya farmers are provided with agricultural insurance products through mobile phones. A productdeveloped by UAP Insurance, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture and mobile operatoragricultural inputs against adverse weather conditions, such as drought or too much rain. To be covered

5

The discussion is taken from Asenso-Okyere and Ayalew, (2011).

26

under the scheme, farmers only need to pay an extra 5% for a bag of seed, fertilizer or other inputs.

In Mozambique, Agricultural Marketing Service (SIMA) collects and disseminates nation-wide andprovincial data on market prices, product processing and availability through a variety of mediaincluding text messages, email, internet, national and rural radios, television and newspapers.

A study conducted in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Tanzania, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique,Ghana, and South Africa) showedthat rural radios with innovative programs, including dramas andradio forums tailored to local communities, are an effective way of communicating agriculturalmessages.

The above brief presentation of selected success stories shows that ICT can serve as

a critical vehicleAccording to Carvalho et. al (2011), eChoupal has brought 10 percent increase in farmers revenue, 5 to25 percent by RML, and up to by40 percent for Esoko. The question therefore is what are thechallenges that deter the replication of these and other successes stories in Ethiopia? Furthermore,what opportunities exist that can be exploited to strengthen ICT-based knowledge and informationdissemination for the agriculture sector inthis

country?

Challenges:

The challenges of access to ICT can be divided into two: (i) access to ICT infrastructureand (ii) access to ICT services. The access to ICT infrastructure in Ethiopia is still very low despite somenoticeable improvements registered in recent years. According to the country diagnostic report of theWorld Bank issued in March 2010, the coverage of ICT in Ethiopia is one of the lowest in Africa. Forinstance, the coverage of GSM signal is about 10 percent of the population compared to the 48percent benchmark for low income countries. Similarly, at the time of assessment, the Internetbandwidth benchmark for low income countries is about 20 times higher than that of Ethiopia.mobile markets is one of the major factors behind the slow development of its ICT sector (Adam,2010).

Thus, despite the fact that ICT has immense potential in disseminating agricultural knowledge andinformation, the low level of ICT infrastructure in Ethiopia is believed to have hindered the sector from

27

realizing its potential. This has inhibited the effectiveness of FTCs in creating and deliveringagricultural knowledge for use by rural farmers to increase productivity and production and toenhance efficiency. In most places, FTCs are notconnected to modern ICT infrastructure and services.As a result, research-extension-farmer linkages are weak and costly as such linkages have to befostered through physical contact such as training, field demonstration, field day program and visits.Thelow level of access to ICT infrastructure is also believed to have slowed the sharing and exchangeof knowledge and information generated from research centers at national and regional levels.Relatedly, electricity infrastructure coverage in the rural parts of the country remains low despiterecent efforts to extend the electricity grid to rural areas through the rural electrification program. Thelow level of electricity coverage has in turn inhibited the expansion of ICT services to rural areas.

In spite of being a necessary condition, access to ICT infrastructure by itself is not sufficient for thedissemination of knowledge and information to occur through it. Access to ICT infrastructure must beaccompanied by access to ICT services. In this respect,the other challenge is how to make ICT servicesboth affordable and available in venues or modes that are convenient to smallholder farmers.Availability of venues refers to the presence of various access points particularly information kiosks,tele-centers, call-centers, and so on in a manner that is accessible to the majority of the farmers. Theseservices are not adequately available and accessible to farmers in Ethiopia. A recent study has pointedout that there are only three public tele-centers per 10

thousand people and even existing servicecenters are unlikely to be sustainable, and extension to rural areas is a challenge due to lack of funds(Chekol, 2009). Furthermore, affordability poses a great challenge to accessibility of ICT service,especially among subsistent farmers. Moreover, although the tariff for modern ICT services such asmobile phone, internet, and fixed lines in Ethiopia is one of the lowest in Africa, prices are not that lowin purchasing power parity terms when one takes into account the low levels of household per-capitaincome (Adam, 2010). Other countries circumvent the problem of affordability by implementing arange of measures aimed at making these services more affordable. In the case of Ghana and thePhilippines this includes the provision of free access to ICT services (see the experience of Philippinesand Ghana in box 3).

Opportunities:

Ethiopia has some ICT related opportunities that can be utilized in thedissemination of agricultural knowledge and information to the users. The most notable opportunityis the presence of ICT infrastructure called the Woredanet that can be easily extended to reach most of

28

the rural farmers and to further strengthen the research-extension-farmer linkage. At present, almostall woredas have the infrastructure that enabled them to be connected to the network and haveaccess to internet, telecommunication, video conference and databases at national level. In addition,more than half of the kebeles in the country were linked to the network by the time of the assessmentby Adam (2010). Thus, the presence of such modern ICT initiatives can be considered to be a goodopportunity to enhance the flow of agricultural knowledge and information in the country. It is also animportant medium to expand and effectively provide a wide range of other extension servicesincluding health and nutrition extension services and conducting civic education programs.

Furthermore, radio transmission covers over 80 percent of the country and about half of the Ethiopianhouseholds own a radio. This makes radio programs one of the most cost-effective channels forconveying agricultural knowledge and information to the rural community. There is potential tostrengthen the use radio to enhance research-extension-farmer linkages in Ethiopia.

A review of experiences on the use of ICT for agricultural knowledge management indicates thatleveraging ICT for agricultural development can generate tremendous development outcomes andimpacts. These could be in terms of improving productivity, access to market, returns as a result ofprice information and other benefits.

But in order to realize such benefits of ICT, the service must be available and accessible, demand-driven, affordable, and its application should be within the capacity of the majority of the farmers. ICTshould serve as a repository of knowledge created by researchers and farmers; and also a platform forexperience sharing so that more smallholders can benefit from it. In Ethiopia the application of ICT inthis way is very limited except for few programs and initiatives whose coverage is currently very low

togenerate the desired agricultural production and productivity outcomes. As a result, the followingpolicy and investment priorities are identified and recommended to help make smallholder farmersbenefit from ICT based agricultural knowledge and information management.

Extend the existing ICT infrastructure to FTCs and woreda agriculture offices: FTCs are the primechannels through which agricultural knowledge and information reach farmers. They are focal points

29

for farmers to receive information, training, demonstration, and advice. Hence, strengthening theservice delivery capacity and capability of FTCs by availing them with modern ICT services andinfrastructure is paramount. The feasible option in this respect is to utilize and expand the existinginfrastructure particularly the Woredanet link.

Realizing this would undoubtedly strengthen the research-extension-farmer linkage and also enablethe flow of up to date information among the stakeholders. For instance, it will enable extensionworkers to access and utilize a wide range of knowledge and information such as those available inthe Ethiopian Agriculture Portal. In addition, the importance of this arrangement in exchanginglocation specific knowledge and information is believed to be substantial. An occurrence of a certaintype of crop or livestock disease in a given location can be communicated to concerned specialistsusing the Woredanet networks provide prompt advice and actions. The specialist without going to thefield can examine the audiovisual information prepared by the extension workers in the field ansprescribe immediate interventions to be taken by field staff. Apart from solving the problem in thefield, it will also upgrade the knowledge of farmers and extension workers, and

other knowledgeintermediaries.

Thus, the role of the extension worker would be improved from transferring technology packages tothat of transferring knowledge and information packages. Extension activity of this kind will be moreknowledge intensive

and more effective as it meets the timely knowledge and information needs offarmers. Furthermore, such access to ICT service will enable extension workers to engage in the fullknowledge management activity and be in the position to gather, store, and disseminate knowledgeand information that are demanded by the farmers. This however, requires the operators to be welltrained in the application of ICT.

Establish and expand rural ICT kiosks: The rural community in Ethiopia is mostly characterized by lowlevels of literacy, income, and awareness of the benefits of ICT. Coupled with the cost of technologyownership, most farmers may be unable to access the technology hardware even if the service wasavailable and affordable to them.

In such a scenario

the feasible approach includes engaging intermediaries between the technologyand the farmers. This will bring rural ICT kiosks into the picture and as a tool that farmers can use to

30

obtain information more cheaply as they do not have to personally investing in owning the ICTdevices. As operators of the kiosks are trained with computer application, they will help bridge theknowledge and skill gap of the farmers by providing personally tailored knowledge and informationto their clients.

The growth and sound performance of ICT kiosks witnessed in many parts of Africa affirm its potentialin narrowing the information and knowledge divide that smallholder farmers face. Thus, theintroduction and promotion of such services in the rural partsof Ethiopia is believed to benefit farmersin many respect, particularly by providing market price information and weather forecasts. In Africaand Asia ICT kiosks are known for their role in providing information on the prevailing prices of variouscropsin different markets. Adopting this approach in Ethiopia will enable farmers to increaseproduction and productivity and thereby significantly enhance their returns from farming. Suchinformation will provide them with what price they would get for their produce in the markets, beforethey even start the journey to the marketplace. This will help farmers to use the information anddecide as to when and where to sell their produce. Further, the sharing of information on locationspecific weather is expectedto be demanded by the farmers as it will enable them to prepare and dealbetter with the situation.

The kiosks can be formed in different ways. It may totally remain as a public center under the localadministration, or controlled by farmers cooperatives in the area. Other possible forms of ownershipinclude private as well as public-private partnership. In whatever form the kiosk is established itssustainability depends on its ability to finance the activity and provide credible knowledge andinformation. To finance the operation, awareness creation on the benefits afforded by kiosks needs tobe made. In addition, it requires providing content that are demanded by the users so that they willbe encouraged to pay for the service. Credibility of the service provided by the kiosk is the otherimportant aspects that influence its sustainability. Following the successful experience of othercountries (such as eChoupal of India), it is advised that the management be composed of trusted localfarmers. In addition to its core service, the kiosk can also serve as an internet cafe where users accesssustainability strategy. The project, however, may start as a pilot program in selected places whereelectricity, internet and mobile connections are available and later scaled up to other places based onthe experiences obtained therein.

31

Strengthening community radio services: The coverage of radio transmission in Ethiopia is quite high,currently covering 80 percent of the country and over half of the households have a radio. This is agood opportunity that needs to be utilized to enhance agricultural knowledge and informationdissemination. In this regard, the role of community radio stations is important as it provides a cost-effective vehicle for knowledge and information sharing in local languages and at community level. Itallows community members to gain from the program and also create opportunities for increasedparticipation. Thus, establishing and strengthening community radios needs immediate attention as itcan provide rural farmers with quick access to relevant knowledge and information. However, to attainits potential, program developers should be well trained and have ample background knowledgeabout agriculture. Further, they should cooperate with farmers in content generation improve theinvolvement of farmers and encourage live discussions with farmers, extension workers, andresearchers.

Expand ICTtraining and make ICT hardware more affordable: The effectiveness of ICT-basedagricultural knowledge and information management equally depends on the availability of welltrained human resource in ICT, among others. ICT training needs to be well integrated into theeducation system from primary to tertiary level. In addition, tailor made short term training should begiven to upgrade and refresh ICT knowledge of those already engaged in agricultural extensionservice.

The cost of ICT equipments particularly computers and related ones should be affordable to enablethe expansion of ICT-based agricultural knowledge and information management. It is recommendedthat the government provides incentives to promote access and use of ICT services by the majority ofthe people, thereby opening new avenues for cost-effective delivery of agricultural extension servicesespecially to smallholder farmers. These incentives could take different forms including, amongothers, reductions in duty and taxes on ICT equipment and services and increasing public investmentin ICT infrastructure across the country. In addition, attractive incentive packages can be designed toencourage the private sector to establish ICT equipment manufacturing facilities and assembly plantsinthe country. This would help to reduce the cost of ICT equipment, stabilize supply, promotetechnology and skills transfer, and generate income and employment in the economy.

32

Conclusion

Agriculture is a sector with great potential for improving rural livelihood and eradicating poverty.Resting on this potential, the government seeks to double agricultural production during the GTPperiod by scaling up best practices, incentivizing production of high value crops, and expandingirrigation development and natural resource conservation. This will be supported by interventionsaimed at transforming the agricultural system so that it facilitates the doubling of agriculturalproductivity of smallholder farmers by end of the GTP in 2015. This goal is achievable with thestrategies government has identified. The challenge, however, lies in implementing these strategies toenable smallholder farmers to scale-up productivity and increase production almost two-fold by theend of the GTP period. Since the underlying strategy is to diffuse agricultural best-best practices fromrealizing this goal. It calls for cost-effective and innovative approaches to the way theagriculturalsector generates and disseminates new knowledge and information to smallholder farmers. Newapproaches, concepts and tools for effective knowledge management are presented backed by areview of global case studies on how these approaches

havebe designed and implemented tosupport effective creation and dissemination of new agricultural knowledge and information tofarmers. The review indicates that access and utilization of knowledge and information plays asignificant role in increasing production, productivity and incomes of smallholder farmers. Ethiopiacan draw upon these experiences to develop and utilize existing ICT-based knowledge managementtechniques to implement robust strategies and intervention to transform its agricultural sector.

Effective knowledge and information management in the agricultural sector will be achieved whenthe right knowledge and information is delivered to the farmers and other stakeholders at the righttime in a user-friendly and accessible manner. To realize this, farmers should be involved in theknowledge management process as knowledge generated in a participatory manner has a greaterlikelihood of being accepted and acted upon by the farmers. This participatory approach will alsoenable the integration of traditional or tacit knowledge of farmers with the modern forms ofknowledge, and further enhance the utilization of knowledge disseminated to smallholder farmers.

Implementing modern approaches to knowledge management in the Ethiopian agriculture sector willnot be without challenge. While recognizing that the country has several institutions andorganizations engaged in the creation and dissemination of agricultural knowledge and information,

33

effectiveness is inhibited by the coverage and inadequate usage of ICT. Ethiopia is currently far behindseveral African countries in the coverage and usage of ICT services, and efforts are needed to scale-upinvestments in physical ICT infrastructure and services across the country. At present, radio stands outas the most utilized medium among the various ICT platforms. In the many countries reviewed,however, other modern and innovative ICT-based knowledge management systemshave been fullyembraced to generate and disseminate agricultural information to stakeholders along the agriculturalvalue chain. Some initiatives aimed at using modern ICT tools such as web portal are underway albeitat small-scale. Government should capitalize on the potential role that ICT can play in improving theproductivity and output of smallholder farmers and should implement bold measures to harness andturn the potentials into real development benefits.

The major challenges inhibiting the use

ICT in disseminating agricultural knowledge and information,which includes the low level of access to ICT infrastructure and services, need to be addressed. Theexisting potential for extending the current ICT infrastructure to reach rural farmers, coupled by thepresence of wide area radio service coverage across the country, should be exploited to implementICT-based knowledge and information dissemination in the short-term. Policy and investmentpriorities that government and its partners should consider in order to promote cost-effectiveknowledge management in agriculture have been highlighted. Priorities include extending theexisting ICT infrastructure to reach FTCs and woreda agricultural offices, establishing rural ICT kiosks,establishing and strengthening community radios, integrating ICT at all levels of education, andmaking ICT hardware affordable to the users. Mobile phone platforms offer good opportunity forreaching farmers and knowledge intermediaries, and their use for disseminating knowledge andinformation should be explored and enhanced and design of interventions should benefit fromexisting lessons and experiences of many countries in Africa and Asia. These initiatives, we believe, willassist the government to rationalize its expenditures in the sector, streamline the agriculturalextension system, speed up agricultural transformation and attain the objective of doublingagricultural production and productivity by the end of the GTP period in 2015.

Asenso-Okyere, K. and Ayalew, D. 2011. Opportunities and Challenges for Using ICT for AgriculturalExtension and Advisory Services in Africa. A paper presented at the international conference onNew Delhi, India, November 9-12

Productivity & Enhancing Food Security in Africa: New Challenges and OppAddis Ababa, Ethiopia, November 1-3, 2011. It has not been peer reviewed. Any opinions stated hereinare those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the policies of the International Food PolicyResearch Institute (IFPRI)

or the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

** This paper was written by Samuel Bwalya, Economic Advisor at UNDP

Ethiopia, and KwadwoAsenso-Okyere and Wondwosen

Tefera, Director and the Research Officer at the IFPRI Regional Officefor Eastern and Southern Africa, respectively.

36

Rights and Permission: Text and data from this document may be reproduced provided the source,this paper, is clearly cited. Reproduction of this document for commercial purposes is strictlyforbidden.

Disclaimer:

Productivity &

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, November 1-3, 2011. It has not been peer reviewed and the views expressed inthis document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of either IFPRI(www.ifpri.org6) or UNDP (www.et.undp.org).

6

IFPRI was established in 1975 to identify and analyze national and international strategies andpolicies for meeting the food needs of the developing world on a sustainable basis, with particularemphasis on low-income countries and on the poorer groups in

those countries. IFPRI((www.ifpri.org)is one of 15 CGIAR consortium agricultural research centers.